Utah state engineer Kent Jones announced Tuesday that he is sticking by his original decision to grant developers a water right for what would be Utah's first nuclear power plant.
Jones had reconsidered his decision after environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah and Moab-based Uranium Watch appealed the grant, questioning the developer's ability to raise enough money for the multi-billion dollar project.
Even though early investors have been dropped, Jones believes that Blue Castle Holdings - who plan to build the plant near Green River - has the capability to find new investors if the project is granted federal approval.
"We have reason to believe they could pull that money together and construct the works," Kent told The Associated Press.
"They have asserted they are gathering funds from investors and they have done quite a bit of work to get to this point," he said. "They just have to go out and get investors. There are some concerns with that, but based on what they've done in the past I believe they have the ability to obtain funds and construct the proposed works."
Jones acknowledged that is original decision incorrectly asserted the the company had tentative deals to sell electricity to 17 utilities. After reconsidering, he said his opinion remains unaltered.
The decision grants developers the right to funnel water from the Colorado River basin to cool the potential two, 1,500 megawatt reactors. None of the water would go back to the river, according to the current plan.
The group now faces an in-depth review as part of its U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing. The next phase will require Blue Castle holdings to provide a detailed plan for how it hopes to raise the money. It is still at least a year away from the first stage of the NRC's licensing review.
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